“In the end, it’s not going to matter how many breaths you took, but how many moments took your breath away” – Shing Xiong

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Proactive Practice

Here is another example of the practice that overlaps with common sense and pop psychology - went to the school's Town Hall meeting today (I used to love town hall meetings when I was a kid in Vermont.) I had some down and dirty ideas of improvements I would like to see but foremost I wanted to thank the Dean for hunting down, capturing and retaining such outstanding professors. From what I have heard that is a pretty good description of the process. I got to do that as well as to compliment the CEO on the financial aid officer. I shared my enthusiasm for the new concentrations programs they are offering this fall and asked for more information and the opportunity to meet the professors involved.

This is the practice. That's it, I am not just a nice guy this is what I DO as part of Buddhist practice. That doesn't make it phony, on the contrary- it is revolutionary. A fellow student complained about the lighting in the clinic, which is fine, that's on the level of the lack of TP in the women's bathroom which I might have mentioned. But I believe we as practitioners of the Buddha Dhamma must look at the bigger picture, and give the meta view our metta view. The little things will always come and go. The bigger things like the impact of our practice on others, the ripple effect, are what we should be concerned with. So my intention was to encourage and applaud the good, the noble and the beneficial. This supports the direction I hope to see the world take. It supports my intention to "save all beings." And maybe it makes those attending the meeting feel a little better about their jobs, their day, their intentions. So our "oneness" is reinforced. It is not such a little thing when looked at this way.